‘Write a Short Talk Bulletin’

    

The Masonic Service Association of North America wants you to write a Short Talk Bulletin.

Well, maybe not you, but they are looking for original copy, of 1,200 to 1,500 words, written as a talk to be given in lodge, on a subject related to Freemasonry. Those are the criteria Mark gave me.

While I wouldn’t put words in his mouth, I’ll add that esoteric talks on UFOs, Mary Magdalene, kundalini, et al. probably wouldn’t make it into print.

You know what a Short Talk Bulletin is. Write one. Send it to Mark Tabbert here.

     

‘The Elements of Life’

    

Oklahoma Masonic Indian Degree Team’s gavel.

Masonry endeavors to instruct men about the elements of life that are worthwhile and have lasting value; to teach of the relationship in which men should stand, one to another; and to impart the lesson that he who gives the best and richest in himself to those around him, receives the very same in return, with added measure. A Masonic Lodge is a gathering of men who believe in Creator and society; men who uphold the principles and ideals revealed in the Volumes of Sacred Law; and men who promote the universal ideals of liberty, equality, and freedom.

 

Installation of Officers

Grand Lodge of New York

Great flying weather, but four flights in thirty-three hours was a workout for me. (I find American is better than United.)

Cripes, now I know how Craddock feels!

The Magpie Mason recently undertook a whirlwind tour of the Midwest, flying to and from Tulsa, Oklahoma by way of four airports in about thirty-three hours. I’m an infrequent flier, so this was a workout for me, but it was totally worth it, having been able to attend the Joint Traditional Observance Lodge Festive Board on St. John’s Day. This, the third annual event, is sponsored by the four Traditional Observance lodges in Oklahoma: Guildhall Lodge 553, Veritas 556, Vitruvian 557, and Providence 558.

At Oaks Country Club in Tulsa.

Our host on St. John’s Day was Vitruvian, whose Worshipful Master, David Dill, contacted me last year to ask if I might be available to serve as speaker at a not-yet-defined event in 2026. I shouted Yes!, with uncharacteristic enthusiasm. I figured I’d be forgotten or replaced with a better choice before too much time passed, but there I was at Oaks Country Club, after some time assessing the qualities of several area craft beers with David and others at McNellie’s South. (I wouldn’t say day drinking makes me a better speaker, but it lets me not mind it so much.)

Brethren donated top shelf stuff for auction.

It was a great night. Festive is the operative word in Festive Board, and the great food, quaffable beer, wine for toasts, and camaraderie ensured a convivial evening. Our ritual had been sourced from a few places, including London, where David once visited twelve lodges in two weeks(!), with each hosting a Festive Board. And there was singing. The usual tunes, plus “Viva la Compagnie!” We had the room only a few hours, so brevity was key; I kept my remarks at the lectern to about twenty minutes. Titled “The Elements of Life,” this new talk extolled the value of tradition in Freemasonry. That could cover many areas, but I zeroed in on certain things we think, say, and do in our lodges.

That excerpt at top, from our New York Installation of Officers, talks specifically about our relationships to each other and to God as upholders of a free society. I thought it apt, as Independence Day neared. That gavel belongs to the Oklahoma Masonic Indian Degree Team, which was well represented that night by W. Dill and others.

(If you are wondering about the T.O. term, that’s how they like it in Oklahoma. In New York, we designate such lodges as O.M., for Observant Masonry, echoing the Masonic Restoration Foundation. For me, the terminology is less important than the best practices, as culled from our rituals, orations, jurisprudence, etc., that should guide lodges.)

I got to shake hands with MW Robert G. Davis for the first time in a long while. Bob spoke first, rendering a spiritual introduction to St. John Baptist Day in relation to our place in the cosmos via the summer solstice. I didn’t know he was to precede me, and I felt terrible having to contradict him when it was my turn to speak.

I broached the topic of tradition by explaining how sometimes they get started in ways we today do not remember. I relayed Pete Normand’s explanation of how June 24 became an occasion of Masonic feasting. (Pete, I hope you don’t mind, but I urged the Master of next year’s host lodge to book you as speaker for this event.) In short, June 24 was one of four Quarter Days, holidays throughout the year when everyone was off from work. However, the saint we read about in the Old Charges is St. Alban, who looked after masons in England during the third century. Meanwhile, neither Saint John is found anywhere in that vast body of literature penned between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. Alban’s feast day is June 22, not the day off from work everyone got in 1717, so he was supplanted with St. John the Baptist for convenience.

If that thinking lacks gravitas to you, as today is Independence Day, for another hour, in the United States, I’ll point out another two-day discrepancy: July 2 was the date in 1776 when the Second Continental Congress voted to declare “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” July 2 was the date John Adams predicted “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” Yet, here we are every Fourth of July.

I have found how, when we study history enough, we realize inevitabilities, like truth can be stranger than fiction. Other times, coincidences become visible in hindsight, and that sometimes “you can’t make this stuff up.” And, especially, there are instances when the simple explanation works best.

In contrast, here are Faceypage posts in reply to someone’s innocuous St. John’s Day message:

Wut.

Not everybody plummets down this kind of rabbit hole, but, when a less-than-obvious explanation of something simple takes root, some will explore tangents that lead even further from tradition. Thanks to Pete, I think Masonry’s standard accepted Holy Saints John-parallel lines-solstices theory represents an accretion of ideas that doesn’t withstand scrutiny. It never made sense to me, but it became our tradition.

But my main point in Tulsa was to note a few traditions in what we think, say, and do in our lodges. For this, I covered territory familiar to regular readers of this website. I think understanding this material is very important—they are “elements of life”—namely:

‣ The centrality to Freemasonry of belief in God, as presented in Charge I of Anderson’s Constitutions, which lives on today in many grand lodges’ law books; in the meaning of our term Great Architect of the Universe, borrowed from John Calvin; and in Anderson’s history of the fraternity, beginning with Adam, “who taught his sons Geometry.”

‣ How Masons of diverse religious opinions coexist by “leaving their particular opinions to themselves” and allowing Masonry to be “the center of union.”

‣ How a Mason is peaceful “to the civil powers, wherever he resides and works,” upholding a tradition dating to the time of Henry VI.

‣ How we, as Masons, subdue our passions and improve ourselves, in a tradition that takes us back to Plato.

‣ And more.

I rarely feel positively about my speaking engagements, but this one went well. I was alarmed by the lack of Q&A (always a bad sign), but a number of the brethren took me aside near the end of the night to thank me for specific points in the talk. I’ll take it.

I even met a brother from Independent Royal Arch 2. I spotted his lodge necktie, and we chatted about New York and Masonic Week.

Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!

In souvenirs, I made out like a bandit, scoring not only the evening’s official beer glass and English-made firing glass, but also one brother’s gift to me of his personal Guildhall 553 firing glass, plus an Oklahoma Masonic Indian Degree Team coin. And I managed to get all that fragile glass home intact.

Obverse of Oklahoma Masonic Indian Degree Team’s coin. The state is rendered in red because ‘Oklahoma’ derives from the Choctaw language, meaning ‘red people’ or ‘red nation.’

I wished I could have stuck around longer, maybe just another day to visit the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan museums, see some of Route 66, and try the smoked bologna (talk about elements of life!) at Big Daddy’s. I’ll have to get back some time.

I lack the talent to join that top tier of Masonic thinkers who regularly travel the country on the lecture circuit, but it is flattering to be invited and receive the red carpet treatment. My next turn at the lectern will be “across the river to the Jersey side” to discuss the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey at the research lodge on September 12, the 200th anniversary of the alleged disappearance of William Morgan. No singing and drinking there, I’m told.

     

‘Academy speakers announced’

     

With temperatures here today exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, imagine, if you will, a clear crisp autumn day at the bucolic Masonic Village in Elizabethtown. Trees are turning orange and yellow. Seth and Austin toss a football on the Green before heading inside for a spot of mulled apple cider.

Anyway, on Saturday, October 24, Roger will be one of the speakers there when the Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge hosts its Fall Symposium!

Yes, another Knights of the North alum will take to the lectern, when MW Roger VanGorden, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Indiana, will present “If Thomas Smith Webb Had a Chatbot: Speculative Masonry Meets Artificial Intelligence.”

Sharing the double bill will be RW Joshua W. Schutts, Grand Orator in the Grand Lodge of Florida, who will discuss “Curating a Culture of Brotherhood and Engagement.”

Proving it’s a small world, both speakers are AMD grand staff.

More information will be forthcoming, but save the date.

     

‘At last: The Book M’

    

The Masonic Book Club has done it again—or at least it will later this year.

The 2026 volume, announced by the MBC and Arturo de Hoyos yesterday, will be William Smith’s The Book M, or Masonry Triumphant from 1736. I’ve wanted my own printed copy of this an awfully long time. I first encountered a mention of this title in Chetwode Crawley’s Caementaria Hibernica, itself reprinted by the MBC long ago, where it was described as an important source of Masonic theory—and even as “hortatory.” And then it came up again elsewhere. Then again over time, while remaining elusive on the web. I have not been able to include this on my list of the Masonic essential books without reading it, but always suspected it merits inclusion.

In a paper on the subject of Smith and this book, the late John Belton of QC2076 writes:

In 1736 there was another William Smith production: Book M: Or Masonry Triumphant. Suddenly the moral and ethical values of Freemasonry appear in an extended readable and spoken form. One might possibly think of this as the contribution from the northeast of England to Freemasonry! And from that part of England that worked the Harodim degrees. That is the opinion of Professor Jan Snoek and increasingly I think he is correct. The oratorical tradition in Masonry came from the northeast of England.

Crawley, Lionel Vibert, and others have written of the similarities of The Book M to Smith’s Pocket Companion from 1735. Belton attributes to that book what your lodge might call the Entered Apprentice Charge, saying:

John Belton

“But finally I would like to tell you about my discovery in the 1735 Pocket Companion of William Smith. It is finding the earliest piece of ritual prose in English Masonic ritual yet discovered. Masonry Dissected was pure catechism. What William Smith added to that catechism was the innovation of a “Charge to Newly Admitted Brethren.” And which uses words and phrases which still resound in English lodges to this day. When I first read it (aloud in my mind) it was the same piece of oratorical prose that remember from my initiation forty years ago. But I was beguiled by the flow of words, because there had been some changes. I showed it to few other brothers and got the same response that I had.

So I’m hooked just for the opportunity to read the early text of that charge. With a $40 price tag, we’ll be paying almost a buck a page for this reproduction of The Book M, but of course an MBC printing will include explanatory text. Take my money, please!

From the publicity:

In the decades following the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge of England in 1717 and the publication of James Anderson’s The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723), Freemasonry was undergoing both consolidation and public exposure. William Smith’s The Book M or, Masonry Triumphant (1736), participated in this transition by offering a blend of history, ritual elements, and songs which reflected the increasing literate and social mobility of the Craft’s membership.

The Book M is essentially a “Pocket Companion” augmented with original commentary on Northern English Masonry, “Memorables,” and ceremonial observations. This dual format, part historical narrative plus musical/occasional material, informed and entertained brethren as well as promoting a positive self-image of the fraternity. The author was likely the same William Smith who was initiated at Swalwell Lodge (Lodge of Industry 48) in 1733.

Internal evidence suggests that The Book M represents the traditions of the “Harodim,” an early form of Masonry distinct from the “Moderns” (post-1717) and “Ancients” (post-1752). Some scholars suggest that the Harodim encompassed ritual elements later found in other high degrees, such as the Rose Croix, the Passing of the Bridge, and the Mark, Ark, and Link ceremonies. However, historical records indicate that the Harodim was primarily a lecture-based assembly. It preserved some of the older traditions of Masonry, including Noah and the Flood, the Tower of Babel, Enoch’s Columns, and the construction of Solomon’s Temple as part of the Fraternity’s mythology.

Although published in a relatively large edition, surviving copies are quite rare, with fewer than ten known to exist. This attractive Masonic Book Club edition, which was re-typeset for clarity, preserves the pagination and some of the engravings of the original. Some of the engravings have been reproduced or reimagined. A new introduction by Arturo de Hoyos adds a historical context and frames the book within the traditional works of the Craft.

Getting back to Chetwode Crawley and Caementaria Hibernica, he humorously writes: “The enigmatical title of The Book M, was doubtless designed to excite curiosity. It stands among the earliest instances of that affection for the clair-obscur, which has now and again led Masonic writers into stringing together long rows of initials. It has been suggested that M stands for Mystic, or for Mirific, or for Microcosmic, or for Megalocosmic, or for a host of words, each a little longer than its superseded predecessor in the list. The irreverent reader will miss the wonder-working Mesopotamian.”

Advance orders will be accepted starting Monday and through August 6. If enough orders are received, the books will be printed and shipped to us in the fall. (Conversely, if that threshold is not reached, we’ll get our money back, so click here and think positive.)

     

‘California conference call for papers’

     

The deadline is August 1, so I thought I should share this information again.

The 15th International Conference on Freemasonry is set for March 6, 2027. Hosted by the Masons of California, it’ll be back in Los Angeles, this time at the UCLA Faculty Club. Its theme: “Scotland and Freemasonry: The High Road, the Low Road, and the Road Less Traveled.”

Organizers issued the call for papers:

“We are now accepting proposals for academic paper presentations for the 15th International Conference on Freemasonry, sponsored by the Grand Lodge of California and the California Masonic Foundation. Topics are open, but should be closely matched to the theme of the conference. Successful proposals will adhere to academic standards of original research and composition, and pursue original analyses. Please send curriculum vitae and 500-word proposal to Susan Mitchell Sommers here.”

Send in your précis!

Kudos to whoever devised the conference title. “The high road” and “the low road” call to mind the Scottish folk song “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond;” while “the road less traveled” naturally reminds us of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, a California native and son of a Scottish immigrant mother. And March 6, for that matter, is the Feast Day of St. Baldred, a hermit (therefore dear to my heart) of the eighth century who came to be known as the Apostle of the Lothians.

     

‘Grotto going to Great Jones distillery’

    

Grotto News You Can Use

Azim Grotto—The Handsomest Grotto in the Realm™️—will gather next Tuesday for a tour of a local distillery. From the publicity:

Azim Grotto 7

Tuesday, July 7

Meeting at 6:30 ▴ Distillery Tour at 7:30

Great Jones Distilling Co.

686 Broadway, NYC

$45 per person

After the brief meeting for Prophets only, the tour is open to Prophets, friends, family members, and guests age 21 and over.

Important: You must RSVP and pay in advance to guarantee your spot on the tour. Space is limited, and the distillery requires a final count prior to the event. To RSVP and submit payment, contact the Zachretary here.

Join us for an evening of fellowship, fine spirits, and good company as we explore New York City’s first legal whiskey distillery since Prohibition.

Sympathy and Good Fellowship,

Joe McMillen

Prophet Monarch

There will be more Lucky Seven events through the year, but looking at September, the Empire State Grotto Association will sojourn to New Jersey for its Fall Convention.

Details still to come, but click here to book your room no later than August 19.

     

‘Annual St. John’s/St. Alban’s gathering’

   

If you’re lucky, you look forward to all your Masonic gatherings. (The secret is to purge your calendar of events that don’t do “it” for you.) Saturday, the annual huddle of New Jersey research lodge guys happened at The Cranbury Inn, our usual haunt.

Invitations went out, but only four of us could make it for a square meal and brainy conversation. It’s our St. John Baptist Day Luncheon (I think of it as St. Alban’s Day Luncheon) for the stalwart supporters of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. We went four hours, finally wrapping it up at five o’clock, as the dinner crowd began taking over the place.

The Cranbury Inn strives to display an adequate number of Washington portraits and firearms...

…and, in my opinion, they come fairly close.

Conversation ranged from lamenting the cancellation of this year’s John Skene Masonic Conference to upcoming conferences in California and Cambridge to the benefits of authors achieving a balance of historical overview and experiential knowledge of the Craft to the bizarre sexual content of a novel, supposedly based on the Hiramic Drama, penned recently by a New Jersey Mason. And a lot more. (Someone pitched the idea of Magpie Mason merch! So look for Magpie T-shirts, trucker hats, tote bags, pens, key rings, koozies, etc. in time for Christmas.)

Of itself, The Cranbury Inn says:

In the mid-1600s in the center of the colony of New Jersey by Cranberry Creek, a mill town began to develop along an old Indian trail that had widened into a road. This road connected the colonies and was becoming a main thoroughfare for colonial travelers. In 1697 Cranberry Towne received its charter from England. With increasing development, a need arose in central New Jersey for a place to eat and drink, get fresh horses, and spend the night; thus, in the mid-1700s (1750 and 1765) our taverns were built to meet these needs of the travelers passing through this area.

After the colonies declared their independence from the motherland, this business officially established itself in 1780. What is now The Cranbury Inn has been functioning as a place to eat and drink since the 1750s.

In the year 1800 Hannah Disbrow Dey & Peter Perrine were married in the Presbyterian Church across the street from The Cranbury Inn. Middlesex County Courthouse records tell us “they built as their home the house that is now The Cranbury Inn.” Their house was built across the front of our two original taverns built in 1750 and 1765, thus further developing and upgrading their business.

Rev. William S. Hall, their grandson-in-law, was a Quaker and a declared abolitionist, the time frame of which seems to coordinate well with the date the New Jersey state historian put on the conversion/remodeling of a flue space on the east wall of our oldest tavern. This converted flue space is an alleged slave hiding space from the days when what is now The Cranbury Inn was an alleged stop on the underground railroad...

Read more here.

It’s a lot of driving for all of us, but we really enjoy it. I wouldn’t mind if we added a St. Andrew or St. John Evangelist celebration.

     

‘Rubicon’s 14th annual festive board and conference’

    

Click to enlarge.

It’s official: The Rubicon Masonic Society’s fourteenth annual festive board and conference is set for the weekend of August 14 in Kentucky.

The graphic above has all the details, but click here to get started.

Having attended last year’s lucky thirteenth annual, I heartily endorse this event. It’s a 1,500-mile round trip for me, so I won’t be able to get there, but if the commute is easier for you, please go. Do it for me and all who cannot be there. You’ll love the fellowship, ambiance, and the content of the discussions.

     

‘Lodge ◆ Arch ◆ Crypt ◆ Temple’

    

Academia Lux Borealis Lodge 25, the research lodge laboring in the Grand Lodge of Alaska, has a series of discussions on the York Rite planned for the coming weeks. From the publicity:

Academia Lux Borealis and Alaska York Rite present The Quarry, The Arch, The Crypt, and The Temple.

Join us for a four-part presentation that will encompass the hidden history, esoteric design, and organization of the York Rite/American Rite of Freemasonry. Open forum questions and discussions will follow the presentations.

Join online here.

The Quarry

Saturday, June 27

Noon, Eastern Daylight Time

The Arch

Saturday, July 11

Noon, EDT

The Crypt

Saturday July 25

Noon, EDT

The Temple

Saturday, August 8

Noon, EDT

Otherwise, the lodge will meet Wednesday, July 22 for its regular communication at 11 p.m. Eastern. VW Bro. Nick Adair and MW Bro. John May will lead and moderate the discussion “Morality.” 

Looking ahead to September, the lodge will meet for its tenth annual Autumn Retreat, on the weekend of the eighteenth, at Tonsina River Lodge.

     

‘CANCELLED: John Skene Masonic Conference’

    

Sorry to spread the news of the cancellation an hour ago of the John Skene Masonic Conference in New Jersey in late August.

Ticket sales, thus far, were too low to incur the risk of all the expense, and this one had an incredible roster of accomplished scholars flying in from all over.

Bad timing is part of the problem. The weekend in question landed between the Scottish Rite biannual and the York Rite triennial, and many New Jersey Masons would find attending all three very difficult. Plus, it’s the final weekend of August, when many simply would have end-of-summer R&R in mind.

I hope the organizers try again for next year, but at a different part of the calendar. There are no open Saturdays, I guess, but maybe there’s a way forward.

All the speakers have been notified. Ticket holders will receive refunds, if they haven’t already.

It’s truly disappointing but, frankly, there’s no surprise at a high octane Masonic learning event not garnering a lot of support.

     

‘The ALR’s installation on Tuesday’

    

The American Lodge of Research will conduct its elections and installation of officers next Tuesday night. We’ll be inside the Colonial Room of Masonic Hall at 7 p.m. A meal (I don’t have the details) will follow.

Stop by and cheer on W. Bro. Michael as he ascends to the Solomonic Chair in America’s eldest lodge of research, chartered in 1931.

I was hoping to find a seat on the sidelines for the coming year (and henceforth), but apparently I am indispensable as Tiler. Or maybe they just want to keep me outside!

     

‘The Mystic Tye on the art of research’

    

I’d never heard of The Mystic Tye Podcast until Monday, but they’re up to the fortieth episode, apparently. Published last Friday, “Four Masonic Leaders, One Epic Panel” unites host Wes Regan with Arturo de Hoyos, Zane McCune, and Josef Wäges for an hour of discussion on research techniques, the diversity of rites, the unexpected origins of certain traditions, technology, and other topics one discovers when reading about Freemasonry.

Click the graphic above to watch this one-hour discussion.

     

‘Chapter of Research to meet Saturday’

    

UPDATE: Meeting is cancelled.

Happy St. John’s Day!

Naturally, Grand Lodge will host its St. John’s Weekend in Utica in a few days, during which Thomas Smith Webb Chapter of Research 1798 will hold a convocation Saturday at 1 p.m. A change of venue for this one. Instead of the Utica Temple, this will take place in the library of the Masonic Care Community for the convenience of those who must be at the MCC for other events that day.

It looks like there isn’t a program of speakers settled yet, so EHP Christopher Fox  welcomes your talent, especially if you have not presented before the chapter previously.

Sorry I cannot be there. I’ll be in New Jersey for the annual St. Alban’s Luncheon, which I’ll tell you about afterward. But, if you’re going to Utica, have a great time!

     

‘Civil War Lodge to take Monterey Pass’

    

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will return to Pennsylvania next month to visit the site of the Battle of Monterey Pass.

I admit this campaign has been unknown to me, possibly because it is overshadowed in history by Gettysburg, only about twenty miles northeast, and fought days earlier. As the Monterey Pass Battlefield Park & Museum website puts it:

After three days

of battle at Gettysburg…

...both sides had taken substantial losses. Robert E. Lee’s 50,000 remaining troops of the Army of Northern Virginia needed to withdraw from 80,000 remaining Union troops in George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. Where did they go?

Monterey Pass was the site of a battle that would determine whether Lee would be able to retreat and fight another day. Sixty miles of wagons, loaded with supplies needed to sustain Lee’s army, headed for the river crossing at Williamsport, Maryland to escape to Virginia. Twenty miles of those wagons made their way via Monterey Pass. During the night of July Fourth, 5,000 Union troops, including George Armstrong Custer, attacked this retreating wagon train in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.

The Monterey Pass Battlefield Park and Museum is a 125-acre natural, cultural & historical park located in Washington Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The park and museum preserves a portion of Pennsylvania’s second largest Civil War battle.

The battle included the Toll House, site of the fiercest part of the battle where the Union broke the Confederate line. The Toll House still stands and is privately owned and occupied, though negotiations are underway to bring it into the Park. The Park includes miles of trails with magnificent views of the area….

The lodge, one of six research lodges at labor under the Grand Lodge of Virginia, will meet at Acacia Lodge 586 in Waynesboro on Saturday, July 18 at 10 a.m. After lunch, we’ll leave for the battlefield site.

Cashtown Inn

For dinner on both Friday and Saturday, we will gather at Cashtown Inn, itself at the center of the wartime storm.

Read about that here.

Looks like another great weekend with the lodge—my only Masonic appointment for July, and then I’m off duty until the John Skene Masonic Conference at the end of August in New Jersey. (Unfortunately, that will coincide with the Official Visit of MW Matthew Szramoski to Virginia’s research lodges, scheduled for Haymarket Lodge 313, on August 29. Listen, I can’t do everything.)

      

‘MLMA introduces BINO’

    

The front page of the MLMA’s spring newsletter shows one of sculptor Bryant Baker’s George Washingtons, located in the famous Hollender Room of Masonic Hall. I hope we’ll be able to hold our board meeting there.

The new issue of The Page & Pillars, the quarterly newsletter of the Masonic Library and Museum Association, is in our members’ inboxes, delivering the essential news of the annual meeting in Manhattan and the roll-out of BINO also.

I know we’re only a day into summer, but let me again promote this annual meeting in autumn, scheduled for the weekend of October 16. Most details can be seen here, and they’ll be posted to our website soon. As you can see, it will be hosted by the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, located in Masonic Hall on 23rd Street. The official events will take place Saturday the 17th, so those visiting New York City will have all day Sunday for sightseeing. We’ll gather for dinner on Friday night.

BINO is Books Indexed Neatly Online—a monicker only a librarian could devise! I know a project like this has been in discussion at the MLMA for nearly twenty years (maybe longer), with the goal of providing our members the mother of all library databases.

Ideally, our Institutional Members, namely the libraries and museums of Freemasonry, will submit to MW Thomas Hauder, Past Grand Master of Nebraska who quarterbacks this initiative, their catalogs of books and other texts. The BINO will show researchers, readers, etc. where to find the book, journal, etc. being sought. The MLMA/BINO will not get you the book, but will show you where to find it. Then you would contact the library in question directly with your request. (Which reminds me to ask the Livingston guys about an old Collectanea.)

Click to enlarge.

Membership in the MLMA is understood under two denominations: Regular and Institutional. Individuals would sign up for Regular at only $30 per year and benefit from access to BINO and our other platforms; support from library and museum professionals via our online discussions and, naturally, in person contact; and access to members-only events. Such Masons could be research lodge guys, lodge historians, grand historians, keepers of your lodge’s archive, library, and antiques—or really anyone who wants to support the labors of the MLMA.

Institutions, such as Masonry’s grand lodges, supreme councils, etc., libraries, museums, research lodges & societies, historical societies, et al. may join at $50 annually to receive those same benefits, plus have voice in creating MLMA content, vote at the annual meeting, and other leadership opportunities.

In addition to signing up yourself, ask your lodge, especially your research lodge, to apply for Institutional Membership. You’ll be glad you did.

     

‘2027 Prestonian Lecture’

    

PGL of Shropshire

RW Bro. Roger Pemberton

The United Grand Lodge of England announced earlier this month that RW Bro. Roger Pemberton will be the Prestonian Lecturer next year, delivering “Hogarth’s Masonic Satires: 200 Years of Misinterpretation.” Congratulations!

If the name rings a bell, you may remember his paper “Charles Shirreff: A Life of Disappointments,” published in Vol. 136 of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum in 2023—and presented in QC2076 on this very date in that year, incidentally.

English readers of The Magpie Mason might be acquainted personally with this Past Provincial Grand Master of the PGL of Shropshire. His bio-note at the conclusion of that paper in AQC reads:

Roger Pemberton was born in Cheshire and raised and in North Wales. He attended Christ Church, Oxford where he gained an MA in English Literature. After a short spell teaching English in England and the Middle East, he ran an import and distribution company in the UK and Europe for thirty-two years. In retirement, he devotes much of his time to his office as Provincial Grand Master and Grand Superintendent for Shropshire, and with what little is left, he spends in pursuit of his interests in opera, Masonic research, literature and motorcycling.

Wishing this succeeding Prestonian Lecturer a fruitful tenure with enjoyable travels!

My thanks to Bro. Martin for sharing the news.

     

‘Hughes! Hodapp!! Hrinko!!! And more!’

    

Looks like a great day of Masonic learning. If I wasn’t committed to Civil War Lodge of Research that weekend, I might have signed up for this. Don’t let that stop you though. Click here.

     

‘Grand Lodge whisky returns!’

    

The Grand Lodge of Scotland announces the return of its Grand Master Mason’s Choice single malt. For those of us in the United States, that’s a scotch. (That 70cl = 700 ml. And I think the 40 percent proof = our 80 proof.) If I’m not mistaken, this is the third distillation since 2015. From the publicity:

Grand Master Mason’s Choice Whisky

£55.00 (inc. VAT)

Speyburn is the only distillery to draw its water from the Granty Burn, a major tributary of the River Spey. Matured in American oak ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, the resulting whisky is mellow and well balanced with hints of fresh fruit, toffee and butterscotch, and a long smooth, sweet finish.

Grand Master Mason’s Choice is 10-year-old single malt—70cl—40 percent proof.

This whisky is available from the Grand Lodge shop within Freemasons’ Hall (after 10 a.m., due to Scottish licensing laws). The whisky also is available for sale from our online shop, within the UK only.

Please note a restriction on one bottle per order, which is in line with Royal Mail requirements. (In Scotland, it is illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under the age of 18 years, per Section 110 of the Licensing Act 2005.)

Click here.

GL of Scotland

Bro. Alexander C.G. Moncrief
Grand Master Mason